Applications to mathematics, chemistry, physics, electronics courses rise, they are now as popular as traditional courses like commerce, economics.

Applications to Delhi University (DU) have broken all previous records as more than 2.75 lakh forms were received on the last day of this admission season. This is almost 20,000 more than the number of forms received last year.

Bucking previous years’ trends, more online applications were received as compared to offline ones.

The number of applications and, more importantly, the number of students who have scored over 95% and 90% are the two factors that determine cut-offs in the top university colleges. The number of students who scored over 95% in class 12 CBSE board exams has grown by close to 3,000 this year. In Delhi itself, the 95-club grew from 1,523 to 2,423 this year.

On the back of the higher number of applications received and the CBSE results, the cut-offs are expected to be on an upward swing this year too.

“If the number of students has increased so drastically, then it clearly means that the cut-off will have to go up. The first cut-off at least, will touch new highs, especially in off-campus colleges as the campus colleges have already declared record breaking cut-offs in the past two years,” said a principal of a popular campus college on the condition of anonymity.

As per data for subject-wise online applications, the highest increase in applications is for courses such as mathematics, chemistry, physics and electronics. The reason: These courses have managed to trump or match the popularity of traditional courses such as commerce and economics.

The data for offline applications is yet to be collated as the forms, which were being sold on Monday, are yet to be processed.

What is driving the boost in applications?

Delhi University’s popularity seems to be stemming from the B Tech courses offered under the now controversial four-year undergraduate programme. When the university was running in a three-year format, the university had received 1.5 lakh forms. This increased to 2.5 lakh last year, when the new programme was launched.

A close analysis of the figures reveals that the popularity of B Tech courses such as computer science, electronics etc, has shot up in the recent past. Even the addition of courses such as journalism and mass communication on the centralised form has translated into a massive increase in applications.